Oct 12, 2016 4 min read

For years now, traffic fatalities in this country have, in general, been steadily declining. Our cars are sturdier and have better safety features (unless you have one with those exploding airbags). There are concerted efforts by our police to get drunken and drugged drivers off our roads and highways. Seat belt use is up thanks to laws requiring their use and public-service campaigns preaching their value.

But the number of traffic deaths rose by 7.2 percent last year, and there was a rather alarming increase in the first six months of 2016, as fatalities climbed by 10.4 percent over the same period the year before.

Several factors are at play here. With gasoline prices down, the number of miles being driven by Americans is up slightly. Also, according to a Yahoo Finance report, people are buying larger vehicles, which on one hand could better protect them, but on the other could inflict greater damage and injuries on those they might hit. At the same time, better airbag systems are being installed in our vehicles, along with advanced emergency braking systems.

Let’s say these factors even out. What could possibly be causing this increase in traffic deaths? The answer might well be right in the palm of our hands – cellphones.

“I think it’s a lot of distracted driving,” Toyota North America CEO Jim Lentz told Yahoo Finance. “It’s cellphones. People have just got to put their phones down when they’re in the car.”

One can barely watch an hour of television without seeing an ad imploring us to ignore our phones while driving, but that doesn’t seem to be sinking in, or it simply can’t overcome the growing obsession with these devices. As the old saying goes, you can’t fix stupid. And that’s what talking or texting while driving really is.

Lentz said automakers could include technology in cars to block cellphone signals, but he wonders who would buy a vehicle like that.

“I’m not sure it’s the manufacturer’s responsibility,” he said. “It’s up to the individual to do what’s right in their vehicles. People need to understand how dangerous it can be.”

The problem is, to a large degree, people do understand how dangerous it can be, but many ignore those dangers.

That’s why our state lawmakers need to take action. Sure, they did pass a law a few years back regarding use of cellphones while driving, but it’s incredibly weak. The only ban is on texting while driving. It’s nearly impossible to enforce, and fairly useless. The fine for the relative few who are caught is a paltry $50. And in the process, our lawmakers invalidated laws passed by cities across the state to ban hand-held phone use by drivers.

In West Virginia, there’s a total ban on use of hand-held electronic devices. In the first full year after the law went into effect, highway fatalities there dropped by 18 percent.

At the very least, our legislators should enact a measure mirroring that in West Virginia. In a perfect world, they would ban all cellphone use by drivers, whether hand-held or hands-free. There’s been at least one study showing that a person talking on a cellphone while behind the wheel is every bit as impaired as someone who is legally intoxicated. Yet we tolerate this.

Certainly there are emergencies in which it would be expected that someone would use his cellphone while driving. A person who is in the midst of a road-rage incident comes to mind, or someone who is having a medical emergency. But in nearly every other instance, there is no phone call or text that can’t wait until a person can pull off the road.

We are not asking our lawmakers to protect those who are dumb enough to blabber or text on their phones while driving. We’re asking them to protect the rest of us from these people.